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After suffering a hard defeat, Democrats are now intent on taking a hard left. If history is any indication, expect them to continue. Simply put, Democrats no longer have enough non-extremists to stop their stampede by the lemmings of the left.

The depth of Democrats’ debacle is easily measured but still difficult to fathom. Trump gained popular vote share — for a third straight presidential election. He became the first Republican to beat a Democrat in the presidential popular vote in 20 years.

In contrast, Harris lost ground to Biden’s 2020 percentage-vote performance in all states but one (Utah) and even in the District of Columbia. As a result, Trump trounced Harris in the Electoral College, 312-226.

Yet staring into this canyon, according to a recent Emerson poll, Harris still leads 2028 Democratic presidential contenders. California Gov. Gavin Newsom placed second. It is tempting to chalk this up to a popularity contest — though Harris’ disastrous campaign makes her popularity hard to imagine — until you look at the other numerous examples of Democrats’ leftward lunge.

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The Democratic Party is sacrificing its middle. Its far-left infestation drives out the non-extremists it encounters. The far left doesn’t care because they win regardless. Either they win absolutely and their policies advance, or they win relatively, because it is the less-extreme members of the Democratic Party who disproportionately absorb the losses.

That the Democrats are thus infected cannot be doubted. In 2020, Newsweek reported the results of a Gallup poll showing that 76 percent of Democrats would support a socialist for president if nominated by their party.

The lemmings of the left are intent on stampeding the Democratic Party into the sea. And they are likely to be successful because there is no one — and no ones — left to stop them.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Bc in order to reindustrialize America, you need a stash of investment capital geared towards infrastructure, basic production, and manufacturing. Ain't no finacialist gonna sink cash into such a low-return endeavor. Either the government finds a partner as part owner (51% govt ownership) or armtwist some company, on the basis of national security, to invest in a industry.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

And the cap on SS/Medicare should be removed and everyone should pay into that on every dollar they make.


And for the love of god, fix the fucking market.

You can change the tax rates all you want, but when the 1% never draw a paycheck in the first place, you need to figure out how you're going to get them to pay their fair share somewhere else.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I don't see a direct connection between tax rates on the rich and their investment behavior. What would be the motivation to plunk $ into investment? . . .

My $0.02

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I don't see a direct connection between tax rates on the rich and their investment behavior. What would be the motivation to plunk $ into investment? . . .

My $0.02

SECOND: No surprise that you can't make connections, Signym.

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SECOND:
Meanwhile, the richest are accumulating money and the subsequent power that goes with freely spending it to manipulate whoever they want in Congress because they aren't being taxed enough, but it wouldn't be a surprise if Signym can't make that connection, either. I am not at all surprised when people with paltry sums of money have little to no imagination, since it takes a significant amount of dreaming to imagine workable and legal schemes to make money.

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The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never
-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

Our analysis of tax data for the 25 richest Americans quantifies just how unfair the system has become.

By the end of 2018, the 25 were worth $1.1 trillion.

For comparison, it would take 14.3 million ordinary American wage earners put together to equal that same amount of wealth.

The personal federal tax bill for the top 25 in 2018: $1.9 billion.

The bill for the wage earners: $143 billion.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I don't see a direct connection between tax rates on the rich and their investment behavior. What would be the motivation to plunk $ into investment?

First of all, you're talking about INCOME tax, but the wealthy (now, anyway) make most of their money thru cap gains.

Second, the whole investment mileu was different back then. Globalism and financialism ... commodities futures, hedge funds, M&As, LBOs, stock buybacks, high frequency trading ... didn't exist back then. Glass Steagall was in force. Reserve requirements

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USA industry dominated the globe. Tariffs were in force until about 1950. What else was there to invest in? Where else would you plunk your $$?

So I think the correlation between high income tax rates and investment was somewhat coincidental, and I'm not sure that drastically raising income tax rates on the wealthy would increase investment in industry, since there are so many other- more profitable- ways to shelter wealth from income taxes.

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OTOH, SIX makes a good point that there is no ROI on infrastructural development. And, BTW, no ROI for things like pollution control and living wages healthcare and other things that make the USA a decent place to live and work. There have to be sources of funding for what are called "the public good".

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